My grandmother's
older brother, Jim Young, owned a small grocery store at
the corner of 22nd and Slocan in Vancouver. The store
was a one-man operation, so when war broke
out in
1914
Jim didn't enlist voluntarily -- and anyway, everyone thought the war would be over by Christmas!

In fact, the war dragged on ... through 1915, 1916 and 1917. Soldiers were dying in the hundreds of thousands. New recruits were desperately needed.

To remedy the shortage, in August
1917
Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden introduced the Military Service Act, making it compulsory
to
serve.

Jim was "called up" and he enlisted on January 10, 1918.

In February 1918 he travelled by train from Vancouver to
Halifax, then by ship to England. He joined
his battalion in France in August 1918, just in time to participate in some
of the last great battles of the war.

Jim Young
was killed on the morning of September 27, 1918
during the Canal du Nord operation, six weeks before
the war ended. He's buried 20 kilometers west of Arras, near the village of Sains-les-Marquion.